Death row: To hold a strangers hand

Tweet

I really enjoy watching the locked up prison shows. I began watching the show as it is fascinating how poor the prison system is within america. Not that I am complaining. I know not much can be changed as there are so many inmates. Many of the prisons across the states are overflowing and are in constant demand of officers. It's a scary and dangerous job, so I can understand why good help is hard to find. Sometimes while watching the show you just have to ask other people in the room how you feel about something in the show. For instance I personally don't think its right to lock up a person in segregation. People in prison only have one thing to think about really. "How did I screw up this bad?" With that kinda thought and nothing to keep me company I know I would go insane. Wouldn't you? Some prisoners are given the opportunity to work doing a job for maybe a quarter an hour pay. I think all prisons should have some kind of program to keep their minds off worse things. Keeping them out of trouble and possibly learning skills. Happier people are less likely to make poor decisions. One episode in particular had a warden who had changed just about everything in the prison so that almost every inmate could have just that; a job; a purpose. He worked his inmate in so many jobs some of the most reserved inmates even got to participate in a rodeo around normal citizens. Though, not all prisoners get a chance to work. Like death row inmates.I watched a warden of another prison show his way through a demonstration of an execution by lethal injection. The warden was a very wise man, he also had a very kind face and eyes. Looked like someone you could call "papa or paps." He spoke of all the men whom sat on death row awaiting cold dark death. Some men who have sat since the year I was born (1992) or longer. This warden, a man who had seen it all, worked with all kinds of low life's you couldn't imagine, had recognized the humanity in these death row inmates. Stating that "Even a good man can make a very...very..very bad decision on a very very desperate day." I think of that very statement every time I see someone on hard times now. Since the legal processes of death row in many states were put on halt and the rate at which executions happen is so slow, most men die of natural causes. What does that really do to your mind when you sit 23 hours a day in one room knowing that your life will never continue. That all is gone for you. The world will never be yours. I would think you'd become numb. No feelings of fear would over come you as you have no thoughts of joy. The warden spoke of some of the inmates he had to watch pass on as the execution was administered. He told of how most would ask that he hold their hand. In the end, before leaving this world, they still had fear. Possibly fear that after execution something worse would befall them, or possibly just....nothing would be after. Most inmates close themselves off to other people. Prison isn't a place for feeling, especially if it's not family. When any inmate shows any emotion at death row it's very shocking to me. How would you feel if you had to hold a strangers hand in the end? Would it make you feel safer or would it even matter to you? I would desperately need someones hand.